The Ancient Word: Rhetoric in Aztec Culture

Abstract

ernadino de Sahagun, the foremost chronicler of sixteenth-century Mexico, observed that all nations looked to the learned and powerful to persuade, and to men eminent in moral virtues. There are examples of such men the Greeks and Romans, Spanish, French and Italians. Also among the Aztecs learned, virtuous, and enterprising were held in high esteem, and they elected high priests, lords, chiefs, and captains from among them, however low their destiny may have been. These ruled over the repubUc and lead the armies, and presided over the temples.' Sahagun and others dUigently recorded the orations of these learned, virtuous, and enterprising rhetoricians providing posterity with a remarkable record of pre-Uterate rhetoric. Historians of Mexico have long recognized that an examination of these speeches provides insights into the thought and culture of the Aztecs unavaUable from other sources. To the historian of rhetoric the orations preserved by Sahagun are equally invaluable for they constitute one of the most complete accounts of the rhetoric of an oral culture. Thus an examination of Aztec oratory is instructive of the role of rhetoric in the life of the early Mexicans as well as indica-